Pros: Takes law office practice
management to the ultimate level of automation, by way of its
unique approach in dividing its software into practice
area-specific modules. The store of form letters and the
documents by practice area alone makes TLA worth a closer look.

Cons: Presently, TLA includes only
state-specific data for New Jersey (including the Division of
Motor Vehicles), but plans are presently in the works to expand
this to include Pennsylvania, Connecticut and California in the
near future and eventually all 50 states. Help sources are still
a work in progress with some errors in the data provided, and a
user forum that is not yet online. This software is compatible
only with Microsoft Word (for document generation), and
documents can be saved in Word 2007 format only if all users are
using Word 2007.

Verdict: It has the potential to organize,
streamline and automate a law practice and reduce support staff
needs. As a practicing legal assistant, I would bring this
software to the table at my firm.

With the many fine software solutions on the market
today designed and tailored to manage all aspects of the practice of
law, another similar product coming down the pike, such as The Legal
Assistant, is rarely big news. While those who follow my software
reviews know that I am a big fan of practice management software, my
experience has been that many busy law firms, particularly the
smaller ones, simply can’t bear even a few weeks’ decrease in
productivity and profits necessary to implement new practice
management software.

It’s more than a little ironic, then, that a
small, start-up software company based out of
Garfield,
N.J., a little more than a year
old, would have discovered the precise com­ponent missing from the
equation. Originally conceived and designed by
New Jersey lawyer Gary Zalarick for his own
use when he could not find suitable law practice management software
available on the market, TLA benefits from having been designed and
perfected by a practicing lawyer, and it works the way that most
lawyers do. While the software comes pre-configured for use in
New Jersey, with current state-
specific data such as courts, counties and judges, this is more of a
boon for New Jersey lawyers than a
drawback for lawyers in other states. TLA easily can be customized
for use in any state by simply modifying the appropriate database.

By merging its powerful and detailed database —
names, addresses of all pertinent parties, deadlines, important or
“trigger” dates, and all manner of reminders — with an array of
common legal forms included with the program and grouped by practice
area, TLA has the amazing capability to automatically generate and
transmit the documents necessary to complete many routine but
important time-consuming tasks by e-mail or fax. Using TLA to
automate follow-up matters, the busy legal professional is able to
focus more on substantive matters with the peace of mind that
results from structure, organization and routine. Clearly, this
translates into reduction of support staff needs, and thus increased
productivity and profits.

As does TLA, most practice management programs
include standard features such as contact, client, and case
management; time-tracking and billing; and document management,
docketing, calendaring, and reminders. TLA’s real innovations lie in
its component design, featuring practice area-specific modules (the
personal injury and real estate modules currently are available,
with family law, criminal law, bankruptcy law and immigration law
slated for release in 2008). Each module is designed in conjunction
with a practicing lawyer in that specialty, and it shows. For
example, the personal injury module features databases for doctors,
insurance companies and county courts, as well as handy tools for
settlement statement generation and trust account reconciliation.
The Real Estate module automatically generates completed RESPA/HUD
forms and payout ledgers from the databases that include real estate
brokers and real estate agents, banks and mortgage brokers,
surveyors, title agencies, municipalities, pest inspectors and house
in­spectors. An added benefit: once data is entered into any TLA
module, it’s available across all other TLA modules.

Once pertinent case data is entered, generating
flawless correspondence, including pleadings and documents, for
delivery by e-mail, fax or U.S. mail, can be as easy as choosing the
recipients and delivery methods from drop-down lists and checkboxes
from one simple dialog box. Then, the e-mail or fax is sent, the
letter or document printed, and the time is billed to the file at
the appropriate rate. TLA is electronically updated to reflect the
transactions and the item is marked off of your to-do list.
Moreover, because all data is universally available across TLA
modules, redundant entry of data is minimized. Source data and
information is easy to keep current and accurate so that it’s
uniformly applied to quickly and easily compose e-mails, letters and
other documents.

TLA’s “Control Run” feature takes this process
to the ultimate level — true automation — by polling the trigger
dates in TLA data fields, as well as those manually entered via its
powerful tickler center, to instantly generate not only printable
reports of upcoming warnings, reminders of letters to be sent, and
tasks on a to-do list, but actually and uniquely accomplish those
tasks, record their occurrence and bill the client as part of that
one simple process. For example, in a personal injury case, the
Control Run report might show that a trial date notification letter
is due to a client in one case and a settlement conference
notification letter is due to another in a different matter.
Immediately upon exiting the report, the user has the option to
either act upon those reminders by simply choosing recipients and
delivery methods for the letters, or disregard them for the time
being since they will continue to be reported until completed or
removed as a reminder or trigger.

By performing a Control Run every morning, each
day can start off productively and on track. Even today many firms
still use the cut-and-paste method of recycling and reusing content
(including both snippets of text and whole letters and documents),
which is error-prone and time-consuming when reviewing for accuracy.
This method results in the loss of otherwise productive time by
having to verify minutiae such as the spellings of each and every
name and address, in each and every document, each and every time.
With TLA, proofreading routine correspondence and documents for
typos becomes a thing of the past since cut-and-paste errors are
completely avoided. The use of names and addresses entered in and
generated from the database are consistently applied and are easily
kept current and accurate. Since TLA data is available across its
various modules, changes are instantly available to all users. Also,
many of the dialog boxes and entry screens feature extra large text,
which is both easy on the eyes and pleasingly unexpected.

I see great things in store for TLA in the
coming year, and it has my enthusiastic support and recommendation.
So aptly, albeit ubiquitously, named competitors large and small
should take note: TLA has all of the bells and whistles, and it
might just be driving the train.